Bulletin board



F NAVARRO BULLETIN BOARD Jan. 25, 1966 Filed May 16, 1963 //VVEN7'0YR ,045.40 /VA VA @no ATTORNEYS United States Patent() 3,230,651 BULLETIN BOARD Pablo Navarro, 33 Patch Drive, Columbus 3, Ga. Filed May 16, 1963, Ser. No. 280,897 2 Claims. (Cl. 40-1Z4) This invention relates to a device commonly referred to as a bulletin board for displaying printed sheet material.

Bulletin boards are commonly employed in oiiices, banks, stores and other places for displaying sheets of paper having news items, office regultions, advertisements and the like imprinted thereon. In most cases the sheets are periodically changed so as to display the latest items, regulations or other matter for the intended viewer and in the change the fasteners that are commonly used to secure the sheets against the display surface are frequently lost. There is a need, accordingly, for bulletin boards that have sheet fasteners or mounting devices for the sheets displayed which are more or less permanent components of the board as opposed to being detachable. The detachable fasteners are frequently dropped or lost, as is exempliiied in those cases wherein thumb tacks are employed for fastening the sheets against the display surface of the bulletin board.

A general object of the invention is to provide a device for displaying printed sheet material.

, Still another object is to provide a bulletin board having fastening devices for the sheet items displayed thereon which are more or less permanent components of the board and which are unlikely to become detached from the surface forming components of the board and lost.

Most of the bulletin boards commonly in use employ thumb tacks or the like as the sheet fasteners, and consesurface for Writing, and the need frequently arises formaking pencil notations, etc. on the displayed sheets by the viewers. With such soft materials it is not infrequent that for lack of a harder backing, the pencils or other writing implements employed pierce and tear the sheet and this is obviously undesirable.

Accordingly, still another object of the invention -is to provide a bulletin board which enables the use of hard surface material for the display surface and which thereby avoids the problems associated with writing on sheets displayed against softer materials.

Still another object'is to provide a bulletin board having sheet fasteners which'are more or less permanently associated with the display surface and which although permanently located at the display surface provide little interference with sheets that are hung on the display surface and extend thereover.

The novel features which are believed to be characteristie of this invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its organization and method of operation, together with further objects and advantages thereof, may best be understood by reference to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing,`in which:

FIGURE l is a front view of a device embodying the concepts of the invention showing the display surface against which bulletin sheets may be secured, certain parts being broken away to show the supports for the front panel of the device;

FIGURE 2 is a side view of the device shown in FIG- URE 1 as seen along the lines 2-2 therein; and

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FIGURE 3 is a sectional view of a fragment of the bulletin board along the lines 3-3 in FIGURE l, the view being shown in isometric form to particularly illustrate certain fastening devices used in the embodiment.

With reference to the drawings, the bulletin board in the illustration is generally designated with the numeral 10. It includes a shallow forwardly opening box-like rear portion 11 that is adapted to house certain components of the display Sheet fasteners 12 which are used in retaining the displayed sheets against the display surface 13 of the bulletin board, and also includes a front panel 14 which is detachably fastened to the housing 11 by metal fasteners, collectively designated at 15.

Housing 11 includes la at rectangular back panel 16 which is adapted to confront the wall when the bulletin board 10 is suspended from a wall, and further includes elongated rectangular top and bottom side panels 17, 18 and opposite side panels 19, 20. Panels 17, 18, 19 and 20 are integrally joined to the adjacent edges of the back panel 16, and at their opposite ends are joined to the adjacent ends of the side panels thereat. The forward edge portions of side panels 17, 18, 19 and 20 are bent inwardly to positions normal to the plane of their respective sides, as seen in FIGURE 3 by reference to the elongated front edge portion 21 of top side panel 17, and in FIGURE 1 by reference to the elongated front edge portion 22 of side panel 20. As thus bent, the forward edges of the side panels 17, 18, 19 and 20 form a continuous inwardly projecting flange 23 that surrounds and defines a front opening 29 in the housing 11.

The housing 11 has a pair of laterally spaced flat narrow upright extending straps 24, 25 which are secured to the upper portion of back panel 16 by rivets, such as rivet 26, so as to provide a two-point means for suspending the bulletin board from a wall. Straps 24, 25 extend above the top panel 17 and are provided with suitable eyelets 27, 28 at their upper ends for receiving the shank of a wall penetrating fastener, such as a nail, screw or the like therethrough.

The front panel 14 of the bulletin board is formed from a flat rectangular metal sheet 30 which is adapted to cover the opening 29 in housing 11. The edge portion 13 of the sheet 30 is bent in the manner apparent in FIGURE 3 to strengthen the panel and to provide a flat surfaced border or marginal portion 32 in the front face 33 of the panel 14 and which surrounds and is forwardly offset from the plane of the bulletin sheet receiving display surface 13 thereat. The sheet portion 34 (FIGURE 3) behind the front border 32 is bent in the form of a forwardly opening C-shaped channel for strength purposes, and this channel type bend provides a iiat border portion 35 in the rear face 36 of the panel which is rearwardly offset from the general plane of the face thereat. Border 35 confronts the opening surrounding flange 33 in housing 11. The corners of sheet 30 are, of course, appropriately cut out to enable the border forming bends to be made in the sheet.

Panel 14 is releasably secured to the housing 11 by metal fasteners, collectively designated at 15, two fasteners 37, 38 being suitably spacedand provided at the bottom of the housing, and another two similarly spaced fasteners being provided at the top of the housing, only one upper fastener 39 being shown (FIGURE 3). The method of fastening the front panel 14 to the housing 11 is best seen by reference to fastener 39 in FIGURE 3 which comprises a fiat elongated resilient metal member 41 which has an end portiong42 that is bent inwardly at right angles to the general plane of the member. The opposite end 43 of the fastener 41 is fixed to side panel 17 with a rivet 44. The bent end 42 is forwardly offset from the flanged edge 23 of the housing 11 thereat and engages the front panel 14 in a suitable slot 45 provided thereat for receiving the end of the member. In this respect, and as is apparent from FIGURE 3, the outer flange 26 of the C-shaped channel bend in sheet 30 has a small slot therein for receiving the bent end 42 of fastener 39.

The flat members of the fasteners are made of resilient metal such as spring steel, so that they may be bent outwardly, as for example into the dotted line position shown with respect to fastener 39 in FIGURE 3, so as to facilitate removal of the member ends from the slots, and thus enable the front panel to be removed lfrom and replaced on the housing, to facilitate access to the housed components. The front panel 14 is su-pported on the two laterally spaced fasteners 37 and 38 at the bottom of the housing when the housing is suspended from a wall and, accordingly, the metal members are of sufficient strength to accomplish this objective.

The display sheet fasteners 12 are mounted in the front panel 14 and suitably spaced one from the other in vertically spaced horizontally extending rows 47, 48 and 49. The structure of the display sheet fasteners or mounting devices 12 is best seen by reference to fastener 50 in FIGURE 3, the other mounting devices -being structurally the same.

Fastener 50 includes an elongated shaft-like element 51 which extends through a suitable hole 52 therefor in the front panel 14. The rear end portion 53 of the element 51 is threaded, and has a wing nut 54 threadedly engaged thereon and a washer 55 which is slid-ably disposed on the shaft-like element 51 in front of the wing nut. Between the washer 55 and the back face 36 of the panel 14 is a coil spring 56 through which element 51 axially extends and which is normally compressed between the washer S and the` back face 36 so as to continuously urge the shaft 51 rearwardly in the direction of arrow 57. The fr-ont end S8 of shaft 51 extends through hole 52 and has a at more or less elongated arcuate plate member 59 which is fixed intermediate its opposite end portions 60 and 61 to the front end extremity of the shaft 51. The opposite legs 62 and 63 of member 59 extend generally radially of the axis of shaft S1 but are arcuately lbent in a manner such that the concavity 40 of the member 59 faces rearwardly and confronts the display surface 13 of panel 14. As such, the end portions 60, 61 of member 59 engage the display surface 13 of panel 14 under the urgings of spring 56 and are adapted to engage the border portion of a bulletin sheet when the latter is disposed between one of the end portions 60, 61 of member 59 and the display surface portion thereat.

This is best illustrated by reference to mounting devices or display sheet fasteners 67 and 68 in FIGURE l.

When the arcuate members 65, 66 of fasteners 67, 68 are pulled out and away from sur-face 13, the border portion 70 at the top of sheet 69 can be interposed between the lower ends 71, 72 of the respective members 65, 66 thereof, and upon their release the springs (not shown), urge the ends 71, 72 into engagement with the sheet 69 to clamp the sheet against the display surface 13. If the spacing between rows 47 and 48 is suitable for the sheets, displayed against the surface 13, they can also be clamped at the bottom, as seen with reference to sheet 69 by interposing the border portion at the bottom of the sheet 69 between the upper arcuate portions 73, 74 of fasteners 76, 76 and the display surface thereat.

It is apparent that by manipulating the wing nuts of the fasteners 12 to further compress the spring thereof or to release the extent of the compressive force thereon, that the force exerted by the fastener in holding the displayed sheet may be regulated as desired.

Use of the arcuate member, such as member S9, has several advantages. The center portion 79 of the member S9 is offset from the display surface 13 of the bulletin board. This enables one to grasp the member with his fingers and to pull the member forwardly against the urigings of the spring in placing sheets between the ends of member and the display face. It also provides a minimum of obstruction to sheets that hang downwardly over the front of the arcuate member as seen by reference to sheet 77 in FIGURE 1.

It is apparent that by using the display sheet fasteners described herein that one can use hard surfaced materials in the construction of the device and thus provide a hard metal surface, such as 13, against which the printed sheets are displayed. As such, one can write on the displayed sheets without the troubles encountered in using softer materials of construction.

While only a certain preferred embodiment of this invention has been shown and described by way of illustration, many modifications will occur to those skilled in the art and it is, therefore, desired that it be understood that it is intended in the appended claims to cover all such modifications as fall Within the true spirit and scope of this invention.

What is claimed as new and what it is desired to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:-

1. A bulletin board for displaying printed sheets and the like comprising surface forming means having a front face portion adapted to receive sheets to be displayed thereagainst, and a plurality of spaced mounting devices for releas'ably securing the sheets against said face portion, said mounting devices being located vertically and horiz'ontally over said front face, each of said devices including a member extending through an opening in said face and having a unitary headed element in front thereof, each said headed element being an elongated arcu'ately shaped plate having opposite end portions adapted to en gage against said front face portion, each said element edge portion being adapted to engage a marginal portion of a sheet disposed between said element and said face portion, said plate having a convex outwardly facing surface between said opposite end portions and a portion between said opposite end portions offset from said face portion when said opposite end portions engage said face portion, and resilient means behind said face portion imparting a force to said member for maintaining said member in its position in said opening and for urging said opposite end portions of said plate into a position against said face.

k2. A bulletin board for displaying printed sheets and the like in accord with claim 1 wherein each of said mounting devices further includes manually manipulatn able means cooperating wtih said resilient means for adjusting the force imparted to said member.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 58,270 9/ 1866 Marks 40-124 760,922 5/ 1904 Rodman 40-11 XR 1,694,433 12/ 1928 Albert 35-63 2,177,215 10/ 1939 Hodgkinson 248-309 2,726,460 12/ 1955 Jecmen 35-65 XR 2,923,417 2/ 1960 Sonksen 248 3,089,269 5/ 1963 McKiernan 248 EUGENE R. CAPOZIO, Primary Examiner.

FRANK L. ABBOTT, JEROME SCHNALL, Examiners. 

1. A BULLETIN BOARD FOR DISPLAYING PRINTED SHEETS AND THE LIKE COMPRISING SURFACE FORMING MEANS HAVING A FRONT FACE PORTION ADAPTED TO RECEIVE SHEETS TO BE DISPLAYED THEREAGAINST, AND A PLURALITY OF SPACED MOUNTING DEVICES FOR RELEASABLY SECURING THE SHEETS AGAINST SAID FACE PORTION, SAID MOUNTING DEVICES BEING LOCATED VERTICALLY AND HORIZONTALLY OVER SAID FRONT FACE, EACH OF SAID DEVICES INCLUDING A MEMBER EXTENDING THROUGH AN OPENING IN SAID FACE AND HAVING A UNITARY HEADED ELEMENT IN FRONT THEREOF, EACH SAID HEADED ELEMENT BEING AN ELONGATED ARCUATELY SHAPED PLATE HAVING OPPOSITE END PORTIONS ADAPTED TO ENGAGE AGAINST SAID FRONT FACE PORTION, EACH SAID ELEMENT EDGE PORTION BEING ADAPTED TO ENGAGE A MARGINAL PORTION OF A SHEET DISPOSED BETWEEN SAID ELEMENT AND SAID FACE PORTION, SAID PLATE HAVING A CONVEX OUTWARDLY FACING SURFACE BETWEEN SAID OPPOSITE END PORTIONS AND A PORTION BETWEEN SAID OPPOSITE END PORTIONS OFFSET FROM SAID FACE PORTION WHEN SAID OPPOSITE END PORTIONS ENGAGE SAID FACE PORTION, AND RESILIENT MEANS BEHIND SAID FACE PORTION IMPARTING A FORCE TO SAID MEMBER FOR MAINTAINING SAID MEMBER IN ITS POSITION IN SAID OPENING AND FOR URGING SAID OPPOSITE END PORTIONS OF SAID PLATE INTO A POSITION AGAINST SAID FACE. 